Walker v. Prudential Property and Cas. Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 26 March 2002
• Docket Number: No. 99-4172.,99-4172.
• Citation: 286 F.3d 1270
• Parties: Patricia WALKER, Marlene J. Golub, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PRUDENTIAL PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

286 F.3d 1270

Patricia WALKER, Marlene J. Golub, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PRUDENTIAL PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-4172.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

March 26, 2002.

Dorothy F. Easley, Law Office of Dorothy Easley, Coral Gables, FL, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Carlos Juan Burruezo, Fisher & Phillips, LLP, Orlando, FL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before GODBOLD, COX and MESKILL,^* Circuit Judges.

COX, Circuit Judge:

Patricia Walker and Marlene J. Golub appeal the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Prudential Property & Casualty Insurance Company on their employment discrimination claims under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. They also seek review of certain discovery orders. Because Walker and Golub have produced no evidence that Prudential discriminated against them, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment. Furthermore, since Walker and Golub have not shown a nexus between the complained of discrimination and the evidence sought in discovery, we affirm the district court's denial of those motions.

I. BACKGROUND

Prudential is a national insurance company with numerous divisions, some of which have offices in Florida. Walker and Golub were employees in the South Florida division of Prudential, located in Fort Lauderdale. On September 7, 1994, the manager of the Fort Lauderdale office, Tom Jackson, announced to the South Florida employees that Prudential would close its Fort Lauderdale office on December 2, 1994. Also attending this announcement were Joseph Putz, Prudential's Regional Director, and Adell Jones, Prudential's Human Resources Consultant.

After the closing, Prudential planned to transfer the existing files and claims in Fort Lauderdale to the office in Orlando, so Prudential offered to transfer all licensed Claims Representatives in Fort Lauderdale to Orlando as well. The Orlando office had an existing operations staff to handle the clerical and administrative duties, though, so none of the Fort Lauderdale operations staff was offered an Orlando position at that time. The operations staff in Fort Lauderdale included six people, five women and one man. Walker and Golub were two of the women on the operations staff.

Walker had worked for Prudential since her senior year in high school. In 1959, she left Prudential to raise a family, but she returned in 1977. Walker had extensive experience in the administrative aspects of the South Florida operation, and she was consistently rated as excellent on her evaluations.

Golub began working at Prudential on a permanent basis in early 1990. After a brief maternity leave, she became a Dispatcher and eventually served as Senior Dispatcher. At the time of the announcement, she was a Salvage Clerk and backup Dispatcher.

Todd Hyland, the sole male on the Fort Lauderdale operations staff, was Senior Dispatcher and had served as a dispatcher for many years. Immediately after the announcement, he told Jones that he was not only willing to transfer to Orlando, but also to Jacksonville or any other place within the company. Hyland followed up on his conversation with Jones by speaking with Thomas Conner, the manager of the Orlando office, a couple of weeks after the announcement. Hyland asked Conner if there were any jobs available in Orlando, either in the first report unit or the claims office, and offered to relocate with no compensation from Prudential. Conner told Hyland that there were no positions available at that time.

As December approached, Conner was concerned about filling the Claims Representative positions because some Fort Lauderdale Claims Representatives had not agreed to transfer to Orlando. To fill an available claims representative position, Conner asked Willeva Meuse, a licensed Claims Representative, to return to the claims department. Meuse had previously served as a Claims Representative in the Orlando office, but she had been moved to Dispatcher in a previous round of downsizing. Meuse was still serving as Dispatcher in Orlando when Conner made the request, but she agreed to return to the claims department.

Meuse, when she was the Orlando Dispatcher, occasionally spoke with Hyland, the Fort Lauderdale Senior Dispatcher, about job-related issues. In October or November of 1994, Hyland told Meuse that he was looking for a new job due to the Fort Lauderdale closing. She told him to call a manager in Orlando to let that office know he was interested in a job there. Meuse denies that she had other conversations with Hyland about this topic, but Golub claims that "Todd told me that Willeva said if I go to claims, will you take this dispatch position, and he said yes." (R.1-34 at 88.) In other words, according to Golub, Meuse was only willing to move from the Dispatcher position if Hyland would replace her.

Whether motivated by concern for Hyland or not, Meuse's transfer opened the Dispatcher position in Orlando. On November 9, Conner sent Jones a PROFS note¹ informing her that the Orlando office needed a Dispatcher. Conner also asked whether he could contact Hyland for the position since Hyland "has all the skills needed for this job." (R.4-182-Ex. C at 3.) The opening for Dispatcher in Orlando was never posted to other Prudential employees.

Prudential's Human Resources department often posted job openings within the company, but Human Resources had discretion over when such postings were made. Adell Jones, who was the Human Resources manager at the time, testified that the Dispatcher vacancy arose late in the process and that she decided to make a direct placement for timing reasons.

After hearing that the South Florida office would close, both Walker and Golub were willing to accept a job with Prudential anywhere in the nation. However, neither Walker nor Golub ever expressed this willingness to anyone at Prudential.² Nor did they offer to pay their own expenses to relocate to Orlando or another office.

Though Hyland was the only employee who had made a call to Conner, Jones decided to "do the right thing" by reviewing the files of the entire operations staff. (R.3-130 at 42-43, 46-47.) This process, according to Jones's estimate, took a week to two weeks. After her review, Jones decided that Hyland was the most qualified person for the job, and she called Hyland to offer him the job. Hyland testified that he was offered the job approximately three weeks before the Fort Lauderdale office closed. He began work as Dispatcher in Orlando on December 5.

In April 1995, Walker filed age and sex-discrimination charges against Prudential with the EEOC, and Golub filed a sex-discrimination charge. They sued Prudential in May 1996.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The district court granted summary judgment to Prudential. The district court determined that Walker and Golub had established a prima facie case of discrimination. In response to the prima facie case, Prudential asserted that it hired Hyland because he was the most qualified candidate for the position, and the district court concluded that there was no evidence that this assertion was pretextual. Walker and Golub appeal this grant of summary judgment.

Prior to summary judgment, the district court denied Walker and Golub's motion to compel the testimony of Karen Miklesh. The court also granted a protective order to Prudential preventing Walker and Golub's access to certain testimony by Tippy Rogers. Walker and Golub assert error in both of these discovery orders.

III. ISSUES ON APPEAL

Walker and Golub contend that summary judgment on their discrimination claims was improper because the evidence discredits Prudential's assertion that Hyland was more qualified for the Dispatcher position. Walker and Golub also seek access to testimony that is protected by confidentiality agreements.

IV. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This court reviews a grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same familiar standards as the district court. See Witter v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 138 F.3d 1366, 1369 (11th Cir.1998). We review discovery orders for abuse of discretion. See Porter v. Ogden, Newell, & Welch, 241 F.3d 1334, 1338 (11th Cir.2001).

V. DISCUSSION

A. DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS

In the absence of direct evidence of employment discrimination, a plaintiff may create a presumption of discriminatory intent by establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. See McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973); Chapman v. AI Transp., 229 F.3d 1012, 1024 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc). "There are a number of ways of establishing a prima facie case pursuant to McDonnell Douglas." Hawkins v. Ceco Corp., 883 F.2d 977, 982 (11th Cir.1989). Once the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case, the burden shifts to the defendant to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for his adverse action. See Chapman, 229 F.3d at 1024. When such a reason is articulated, the presumption of discrimination is eliminated, and the plaintiff must submit evidence showing that the articulated reason is pretextual. See id. If pretext is established, summary judgment in favor of the defendant is generally inappropriate. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 148, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 2109, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000); Chapman, 229 F.3d at 1025 n. 11; Combs v. Plantation Patterns, 106 F.3d 1519, 1538 (11th Cir.1997).

"Discrimination is about actual knowledge, and real intent, not constructive knowledge and assumed intent." Silvera v. Orange County Sch. Bd., 244 F.3d 1253, 1262 (11th Cir.2001). When evaluating a charge of employment discrimination, then, we must focus on the actual knowledge and actions of the decision-maker. See Bass v. Board of County Comm'rs, 256 F.3d 1095, 1105 (11th Cir.2001).

Walker and Golub make alternative arguments regarding the actual decision-maker. First, they ask us to...